AS IF HE NEEDS FURTHER projection, Lieutenant Peter Reed, 6ft 6in and in full uniform, is standing on a raised platform, his giant hands clasped in front of him, Tower Bridge relatively tiny in the window at his back.

 

Looking at this upright vision of blue and gilt, it is little wonder that the Royal Navy is keen to make the most of its Action Man, who is using the Thames-side base at HMS President to announce that he will seek a second Olympic rowing gold in addition to that he won in the four at the Beijing Games.

 

But while Reed's physical presence is imposing, his achievements stand even taller.

 

As well as being an Olympic and world champion, the character known in rowing circles as "The Commander" holds a Masters degree from Oxford and is also a talented pianist and guitar player.

 

More Renaissance Man than Action Man, in fact.

 

The thoughts of the Navy's poster boy are focused for now, however, on the challenge of making another glorious splash when the Games arrive in London four years from now.

 

For challenge, read pain.

 

Training to be an Olympic rowing champion is a matter of punishing sacrifice, and the pause which even the likes of Steve Redgrave, Matt Pinsent and James Cracknell have taken before committing themselves to four more years of toil has no coyness about it.

 

Reed's Beijing colleagues Andy Triggs-Hodge and Tom James have already indicated that they will be working towards London 2012.

 

But the fourth member of the crew, Steve Williams, is taking his time. In the aftermath of his Athens victory, Williams waited until January of the following year before re-booting his Olympic ambition.

 

With two gold medals to his credit, and at the age of 32, he faces an even harder decision.

 

Before making his own commitment, Reed has talked to his employers - who are backing this engineer fully for another four years away from any engine room - and to his girlfriend Sally, a solicitor who works in the City.

 

She too has offered her full support.

 

And the fact that London will host the next Games is a huge factor in Reed's newly set course.

 

Father texted "London 2012"

 

"'I remember exactly where I was when we heard that London had got the Olympics," he says.

 

"I was training in Lucerne, and I got a text from my father which simply said, 'London 2012'.

 

"Competing in front of a home crowd would be huge."

 

So now it's just a matter of getting down to the horrendous business itself…

 

"We train three times a day, seven days a week,"he says.

 

"We get four or five Sundays off, and Christmas Day off.

 

"We're working first thing in the morning, and late at night.

 

"And when we do work it's full-on - an hour and a half or two hours on the ergo machine or the weights.

 

"It's brutal."

 

The Navy may want to use Reed for promotional purposes over the next four years, but those in charge realise fully what will be involved in him achieving a further Olympic ambition.

 

While he will be attending events and giving speeches, there is a clear understanding that there will be times when the answer to an invitation will be "sorry – too busy." 

 

Drama to match Redgrave and Pinsent

 

After an injury-wracked preparation for Beijing, the way in which Triggs-Hodge, Reed, Williams and James cranked up their stroke rate over the final 250 metres of the Shunyi course to make up three seconds on the Australian crew ahead of them provided drama to match the previous gold medal efforts of the British four in 2004 and 2000.

 

What will help Reed endure the next four years of toil is the memory of that final, desperate charge for the line.

 

In the aftermath of victory, head coach Jurgen Grobler talked of the last 100 metres being "in the brain", adding: "It is still sending the signal down when it gets a little bit dark.

 

"To still hold together and pull is the main message."

 

Reed recalls that final effort as being, above all, about a sense of responsibility: "I was just replaying to myself the words, 'This is the Olympic final , this is the Olympic final…'

 

"And I was moving faster and pulling harder than I had ever done before, trying to back Hodgey and the other guys up.

 

"You get to the stage where you are trying most of all for each other.

 

"It's all or nothing, and all you want to do is back up your team-mates."

 

Record-breaking lungs

 

Among those present on this drizzly London morning, in his latest incarnation as a BBC sports journalist, is four-times Olympic champion Pinsent, whose lung capacity of 8.5litres stood as a record across all sports until a routine test at the English Institute of Sport showed that Reed's figure was 9.38 litres.

 

A figure so startling that the physiologist insisted on repeating the test to make sure there had been no mistake.

 

Not surprisingly, Reed retains his record in the current British rowing set-up.

 

But he adds, with a grin: "I'm waiting for some mutant to turn up next year with a 12 metres capacity."

 

The problem for Reed is this.

 

Now that everyone knows about his outlandish capacity, it only means that Grobler and co can work him even harder.

 

Pinsent, meanwhile, voices concerns that Reed may face distractions beyond the world of rowing as he goes forward for his next Olympic cycle, something with which he had to deal himself.

 

"I will totally back myself to be very focused,"responds

 

The Commander with a suggestion of steel in the gaze.

 

You tend to believe him.

 

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now freelancing and will be writing regularly for insidethegames